Musical Terms and Expressions Definitions / Help
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Accelerando - tempo gradually gets faster |
Accidental - symbols such as sharps or flats and naturals that raise or lower a pitch. |
Adagio - slow speed (not too slow) |
Allegro - fast tempo / speed |
Andante - play the music at a moderately slow speed. |
Bar Line - a vertical line on the staff to separate measures in a composition. |
Beam - a straight line connecting two or more notes such as eighth and sixteenth notes. |
Beat - a musical pulse or unit of time / the steady pulse of music. |
Chord - a combination of three or more notes sounding at the same time / multiple notes sounding simultaneously (Ex. A C Major chord may consist of the notes C-E-G.) |
Clef - a symbol placed at the beginning of the staff to indicate names of lines and spaces. |
Conductor - the director of a group of musicians. |
Crescendo - gradually get louder |
Decrescendo - gradually get softer |
Dot - a small symbol placed to the right of a note that increases the duration of the note by one half. |
Dynamics - symbols that indicate a change in volume of a song. (The students played the music louder and softer, as indicated by the dynamics written on the music.) |
Enharmonic - Two notes that sound the same but are spelled differently. |
Fermata - a pause in the music, indicated by this sign. |
Flat - a symbol written to the left of a note that lowers the pitch by a half step. |
Forte - loud. (The percussion section saw the forte mark on their music and played the music with a booming sound.) |
Half Step - the distance between one key and the next adjacent white or black key on a keyboard. |
Interval - the difference in pitch between two notes. |
Largo - slow and stately |
Ledger Line - a small line written above or below the staff to extend the range of notation. |
Legato - playing notes in a smooth, connected manner. |
Measure - the space between one bar line and the next. |
Moderato - medium tempo / speed |
Octave - the interval between two adjacent notes of the same name. |
Orchestra
- a large group of instrumentalists consisting of woodwind, brass, string and percussion sections. |
Pentatonic - a scale having five tones to the octave, usually avoiding half steps. |
Phrase - a complete musical thought. |
Piano - soft |
Pizzicato - pluck strings instead of bowing |
Presto - very fast tempo or speed |
Recorder - an end-blown flute-like instrument that has a whistle mouthpiece, available in soprano, alto, tenor and bass. (The teacher told the students to play the recorder by blowing more softly.) |
Refrain - the melody of a song that is repeated after each verse. (After singing the second verse of the song, the chorus sang the refrain.) |
Repeat
Sign - a sign that indicates a section of music to be played again. (The clarinet players had to go back and play measures 5-13 again when
they got to the repeat sign.) |
Rest - a symbol used to indicate silence in music. |
Sharp - a symbol written to the left of a note that raises the pitch by a half step. |
Slur - a curved line connecting two or more different notes, indicating to play the music smoothly. |
Staccato
- a dot over or under notes that indicate playing the music short and detached. |
Staff - horizontal lines on which notes are written. The musical staff has five lines and four spaces. |
Syncopation - a rhythm accented on notes that are not usually stressed. |
Tempo - the speed of a composition. (The director told the students to play the song at a faster tempo.) |
Tie - a curved line connecting two notes indicated to play them as a single note. |
Vivace - lively and quick tempo |
Whole Step - A whole step is equal to two half steps. (Examples - C to D is a whole step. E to F Sharp is a whole step.) |
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